Smile and Nod

Chapter One - Winner and losers The way of the universe can be simplified to those who win and those who lose. Atoms in space will smash into each other, creating new materials, leading to new planets and galaxies. Microscopic organisms consume smaller ones and keep them internally performed to work for their benefit. This is the way of the world. Cronus; the titan of time, was at the head of the table for the motley crew of higher beings. The team had their weekly Boom meeting, a telegraphic conference call about all matters of the universe. Tyche would decide who was due for good luck, Nemesis was always there to counter her good fortune and revoke it from those who had not deserved it from her grace. The sisters who must have had proud parents, conceiving both the mathematical criminal and the dead batteries in the calculator for a detective to keep the world in balance. Acephalus healed the sick if he was not busy chasing the scent of the lucky sisters. Ponos was always early, the titan of work. Today, he has to have one eye on the Boom, the other on Sisyphus and the boulder being pushed up a hill. Sisyphus had begun to celebrate each time his boulder would roll back downhill, and Ponos was looking to show the crew (mostly Nemesis) that his punishment was adequate. Themis looked over at the smiling image of Tyche, who was covering the view from her perspective. Cronos was also only enabled through the Boom without others seeing or hearing his presence. “I am going to tell you something and hope that you listen. Please use caution at the news brought forth today.” Themis saw the future, and her words consistently fell on deaf ears. She was privately speaking with Nemesis. “What news?” She replied angrily. “Just try not to castrate anyone.” Themis was dead serious, as Nemesis quickly snapped back, “That was only three times.” Nemesis had once cut the c**k off of someone who took her to dinner and ate one of her french fries without asking, another time as she was getting dressed for her date he canceled after she had done all the precoital work to prepare her body for love. The third was her own father for infidelity, so there was a tendency to overreact. “Who is due for divine retribution? I have nothing on my schedule for the rest of the month?” Nemesis could only ponder. “Similar to your father and not just a french fry thief, far more heinous an act. “Stealing my fries on our first date when I told him I worked through lunch was the worst crime in history. ” Men were just beginning to organize on earth, and there was a leader who had gathered strength in numbers. “Ponos, not today. Just please not today.” Themis was pissing in the wind, everyone neglecting her powers with no use of what may come if they could alter interpretations. “Work does not delay. Speaking of which, where is Chronos? I hear him, but he won’t turn his Boom vision on. That’s not like him.” Ponos replied to Themis, never questioning his order or the chain of command. “Cronus, I have a serious question, but I can not help but feel you are distracted. And where is Prometheus? How vulnerable should humans be? What would you propose for their lifespan? I need your numbers, sir.” Acephalus needed to know how to treat their sickness and wounds, as their numbers were multiplying. “The time to ask that question was last week. Today, you have no clue the consequences of that question.” Themis spoke as though she announced a blowout baseball game with nobody in attendance. The visual feed for Cronus and Tyche came on simultaneously, and they were clearly just cleaning up after making love. Cronus was quick to start the meeting. “Okay, as you all are aware, men are forming allegiances and growing in numbers. They are primitive, but they are growing. Miss Tyche and I have talked, and one of these days, we should reach out and speak to them and offer some guidance or something. I like those guys.” “We will make contact with the leader who keeps making use of objects once he has a child.” Themis laughed aloud. Nemesis had been chasing Cronus as a lover since he took over. The sight of her sister with the one she desired made her visibly furious as she paced and couldn’t keep her hands from moving with anxiety and anger. “Hey, what about their lifespan and their recovery from wounds and infections? How strong are we to empower them?” Acephalus spoke up as he tried to divert the attention of the Boom from the pure jealousy Nemesis portrayed. “They are weak. Only one or two are smart enough to use a tool the right way. Don’t go crazy until they start to put things together. Speaking of which, where is Mr. Smarty pants? BOOM MOTHERFUCKER!” Prometheus decided it was time for men to control some of their own destiny. Meeting with a promising young man who is respected by all levels of tribes, En Ignou. In a cave on the top of the mountains, he had decided to pass the tool of fire and the knowledge for it along to man. “This stuff is as dangerous as it is profitable, it can spread without control and change the lives of thousands in a single night. It can also allow you to see when the sun is no longer up. If you control this tool, it will bring you warmth on cool nights, vision in darkness; and if you must, it may be used as a weapon. The light it will provide will allow mankind to see the world much clearer, and to understand things that may have escaped them for a millennia. But if you shine a light on something that is not the truth, people may believe it to be so. There are a lot of consequences in the balance of this tool, why are you so sure you deserve this more than others?” En Ignou paused, and stated how he felt. “Because I am a man of logic, and a man who believes in cause and effect. I believe I will lead mankind towards a way of life that will be most beneficial.” Prometheus had seen enough promise in the man, and was running short on time. It was only a matter of moments before Cronus sent him a personal Boom to see his location and his actions. Three keys to starting, expanding, and stopping fire were passed to man for the first time. Once the light went on, En Ignou noticed a glimmer in the distance. It was a weapon that looked pristine. Just like that, Cronus appeared. “The crew and I have seen what just took place, and we have decided it is time to let you go.” Prometheus with a smile on his face could only say, “It was only a matter of time.” En Ignou had now recognized the weapon he held in hand known as the harpē. Cronus used the harpē to castrate his father Uranus by the command of his mother Gaea which had separated heaven and earth, so he left the harpē hidden on earth. Aware that what he possessed was coveted by Cronus; En Ignou had an idea far ahead of his time. He realized since the dawn of existence that all men that lived had also died, even kings and the “godly men'' of history were victims of time. Why not make a deal towards the financial gain of his family legacy upon his death? En Ignou had no desire to surrender to an undefeated force when it could be exploited. En Ignou had a proposition for the weapon. En Ignou, his family line and legacy would always live a life of luxury and power as long as Cronus was present. He would be the first King from this day forward. Once the weapon was in the possession of Cronus, King En Ignou used his weapon to draw blood from his palm while Cronus had to use the harpē (his only kryptonite) to slit his palm and make the blood oath official with a handshake. King En Ignou had been lucky, and clever enough to think on his feet for a dynastic life insurance policy. After each King died and/or an heir was born, the King or heir would meet with Cronus in his temple to inherit two lifetimes of luxury and gold. But there was a hamartia in the contract that King En Ignou failed to consider; as long as Cronus was present, he would always carry out the blood oath he had sworn. The fine print of the first life insurance policy. Despite King En Ignou placing magnificent originality into his perspective on how death could be used to an advantage, he had not considered asking the Titan of Time how he was able to live forever and maintain a sense of sanity. Perhaps the most important question that the King never even considered was that if Cronus held the power of time as the force that would alter and or destroy all that was or would ever be, could time eventually lead to the destruction of Cronus? Unbeknownst to King En Ignou, it already had. Chapter 2 Maximus The Titan of time Cronus struck a blood oath with King En Ignou, who had in his possession an ancient weapon known as the harpē; after Cronus had castrated his father Uranus he had separated heaven and earth, so he left the harpē hidden on earth . Unaware of what he possessed, King En Ignou surrendered the weapon in exchange ensuring that King En Ignou and his family line would always live a life of luxury and power as long as Cronus was present. Once the weapon was in the possession of Cronus , King En Ignou used his weapon of choice to draw blood from his palm while Cronus used the harpē to slit his palm and make the blood oath official with a handshake (Once this fact was deduced, a light went off in the head of Maximus; the Titan of time desired a weapon that could kill a god and the first use of this weapon is self inflicted injury). After each new heir took the throne, the new King would meet with Cronus to inherit two lifetimes of luxury in gold and wealth for the death of the prior king. But there was a ripple in the contract that nobody seemed to consider; as long as Cronus was present, he would always carry out the blood oath he had swore. Yet when King En Ignou originally put the deal in place, he had not considered asking the Titan of time how he was able to live forever and maintain a sense of sanity. Perhaps the most important question that King En Ignou never asked was if Cronus held time as the power that destroyed all that was or would ever be, could time eventually lead to the destruction of Cronus? And it had destroyed Cronus in a manner of speaking. The Titan of time had grown depressed. After taking reign by castrating his father by the command of his mother, and destroying all that ever was for what felt like eternity; the only thing he truly desired was to be at peace. He developed a system of laws to alter the physical constructs of matter by where each atom went, why it went, and what would happen once it inevitably collided with other forces or atoms without having to be present to reign over the universe. Time had transformed from the power that destroyed all that ever would be, to the location and reactions that simultaneously would occur. Instead of leaving everything to destruction, Cronus wished for time to work in flux by concurrently breaking down old and new. Cronus had to witness the sacrifice of children to a God that would never exist, or a harvest that would never come, brothers being stabbed in the back for multiple petty reasons such as monetary gain or jealousy and lust for the others wife, infections ravage through peaceful societies, enslavement and torture for free labor (outside of room and board of course) along with power and satisfaction of established dominance and so on . After a while Cronus had seen enough and committed suicide. Cronus had reneged his intention to King En Ignou to bequeath a fortune to each heir apparent, he had also robbed himself of what was most valued as human beings, time. King En Ignou knew that all men passed away, but believed that by his oath with Cronus his family line would finally beat the undefeated father time. If he could not live forever in power, his sons and their sons would always inherit fortunes and power to make the name Ignou last eternity. Not to mention, a blood oath with the Titan of time was perceived by King En Ignou to last forever. Yet time is relative to the observer, and it may destroy all that ever was or will be. But it also creates new physical compounds from the remains of old one's. For centuries men had been baffled by this setup, yet Maximus took twenty three minutes total to solve this. Max proceeded to quaff their wine whilst celebrating his mental dominance, he began to add his input on how the monks who had thousands of years built on their specific way of life with gathering rain water and storing food could improve and modernize with new technology. Preaching the advantages of solar panels with batteries to power refrigerators laptops and television and pornography to improve their time on earth with more happiness, questions to ask and answers to give while alive on the rock we call earth. Suggesting indoor plumbing along with a water heater to be installed all the way up Mount Meteora was enticing to some, but the realization of how to get all this accomplished along with the maintenance was in their opinion far more work than reward. The monks had no desire for the ancient puzzle to ever be solved, feeling that life was meant to be experienced by means of inherited genetic potential along with a touch of both good and bad luck. Yet they graciously re-gifted him a set of steel chopsticks from when the Japanese monks made their once a century tradition of visiting monasteries around the world. The Japanese had these chopsticks engraved with the Japanese characters to adapt and advance, so the Greek monks bestowed upon him the re-gifted chopsticks while wishing him an expeditious farewell. On his return home, Max modernized them with a coat of acrylic. Maximus Curead wasn’t like the rest of the young kids who struggled a few years into their twenties trying to figure out the career path to walk down the rest of their lives. When his mother Maureen Curead passed away from lung cancer Maximus knew his life’s focus. Ever since her passing, Max dedicated all of his time towards studying and understanding cancer for the sole purpose to eradicate it from existence like polio. Maureen had voiced how she smoked cigarettes only for a few years in her early twenties, and never really even enjoyed a single smoke. All her friends picked up the habit, so she went along for two to three years before quitting cold turkey. The trends of time are dangerous to those who participate. A genuine prodigy regarding anything based with logic by nature, and medicine by nurture, Maximus graduated from John Hopkins medical school at the age of twenty three. Max, now seated at his new job looking gentile, yet appeared almost robotic as he calculated throughout the meal to conclude with the final piece of his sushi to end with the best bite. Going out on a high note on the olfactory system. His chopsticks far superior to those two pieces of wood glued together from take out restaurants, Max had brought his own set of chopsticks from abroad while on sabbatical after graduating valedictorian from medical school at Johns Hopkins. Max spent a few months in the mountains of Meteora Greece living with monks who taught him how they had lived for the past few centuries in isolation. Meteora was a monastery built at the apex of a narrow cliff that lingers in the mountainside. Hundreds of feet above the surface with unobstructed views in every direction to fend off Byzantine or outlaw invaders. Ladders were strung together with rope and never tested for durability. A rope would snap and a soul was sacrificed to their gods. Eventually, Max was politely shown the door for getting wasted with their sacred chalice that had been hidden and protected behind a complex puzzle and a stone vault that stood unabridged for centuries. Legend of the chalice was that he or she who could solve the puzzle would hold all of human potential in their hands. The puzzle was a complex logic question, posed by various pictures added or subtracted to equal other pictures. A matter of decryption was necessary to view the vault with stones that bared images which slid along the vault door like a complex combination lock. These images filled a rectangle with a space to slide out one image and a space to remove another. Legend told of a yet to be discovered victim who had died yet also taken that which is most valuable. Maximus is a prodigy at problem solving, and within a few minutes gazing at centuries old cave paintings, he took the proper stones and routed them into order. All that was known was the verbal legend told of two victims that lost what was most precious. Each of his sushi rolls were prepared meticulously, a touch of wasabi evenly distributed followed by a sliver of ginger. Avocado and salmon with brown rice; quite nutritious, which comes as no surprise to those who know him, always conscious of what he puts in his body. An espresso early in the morning to jump start his neurological workings with a cup of fruit and greek yogurt, then a cup of tea to go with his sushi was his meal routine during hours of the sun. Maximus was quite simply one of the smartest men in the world, which meant his brain capacity was in need of proper nutrition to act at full potential. Max was reading novels in a matter of minutes and remembering word for word of each and every page number it correlated with. Graduating MIT at the age of eighteen; Max was fluent in six languages; English was his native tongue but he was fluent in Greek, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese, played classical piano without ever taking a lesson, and never lost a game of chess. The human brain consumes on average 85% of the body's total energy in terms of ATP, and when the brain is as unique as Maximus, a proper diet is essential to bring forth peak performance. “Bacon and eggs with hashbrowns again? You may want to change those bad habits and put yourself on a healthy regimen; this is coming from your friend, yet more importantly a medical doctor.” Maximus lived to quibble with his british best friend Eli, who was also just hired by Hans Schmitt as a new physician at his private practice Optimism Oncology, the groundbreaking center of cancer research and state of the art private practice that was world renown for its options for by the book treatment (Oncology treatment itself was a book constantly being re-written by the master himself, Hans Schmitt) or if the patient met the criteria; experimental human trials and the financial prosperity that came to be out of reputation of doing anything in his power for his patients. Hans was 64 years young, just a man who spent the majority of his life learning, and making breakthrough discoveries in the field of cancer research. Along with an assload of money. “Mate, you only live once and yet you choose to ignore the pleasures of the palate that ought to be treasured at least occasionally. Now if I had Daddy’s money to eat out on like some people, filet mignon would be for supper nightly, accompanied by the finest red wine money can buy.” Max’s father Christopher Curead is a trial dogg of a lawyer, who happened to be beyond wealthy from the law firm built from the ground up. After Maureen passed away, Christopher intentionally distracted himself with work in order to avoid the realization that the love of his life was t**s up. Curead and Cooper became a juggernaut firm with clients that were filthy rich and powerful, such as Senators, NFL owners, tobacco lobbyists, even large oil companies such as BP were represented by Curead and Cooper. Corporate law, trusts and estates, high profile criminal cases were all under the hood of the Curead and Cooper engine. Max followed his father’s lead in a way by losing himself in medical books to help him find a cure to cancer, rather than register the psychological impact his late mother had bequeathed to them both. “We now work for one of the most lucrative private practices in the world, my father’s money isn’t a real concern anymore is it Eli? Once the first paycheck arrives you will no longer need to eat like a poor undergrad student.” “Quite right, as long as you don’t go and get too clever by accomplishing that lifelong goal of yours, we shall pad our pockets with profit off the downtrodden.” Eli and Maximus were both smirking at the quick line of comic relief. Eli Marcenair, born and raised in Liverpool, England. An orphan who lived in poverty going from home to home in the public system. Eli wasn’t erudite like his friend Max, yet he was somebody who understood people to a molecular level with not much more than a once over glance in their general direction. Charming the pants off any female he struck up conversation with, along with the capacity to bond with friendship with the most unsuspecting people he crossed paths with. Eli knew how to assimilate with anyone. Eli never had a pair of nickels to rub together growing up, so when hard work had earned him a full academic scholarship, he was intent on making more money than God with his opportunity. A private practice doctor would fill his pockets, especially oncology. When a patient realizes that they have cancer, they often break the bank to pay for treatments. It is a matter of life and death, and humans have an evolutionary desire to live on which in cancer patients leads into costing a fortune. Eli was borderline eager to charge the financial limits of what people would pay for a chance to live, and yet his ego required that he still must deliver the best treatment that money could buy. Eli and Maximus had attended MIT together, and became best friends in the course of a rather unusual evening. A chess tournament for freshman students was held by the quad. As they both entered the final round, a large circle including athletes, nerds and all sorts of individuals formed around the final match. It was an MIT tradition to hassle the freshmen chess tournament, a way to haze and say welcome to our school. Eli was a few years the elder to the prodigal Maximus; though he looked eighteen with a face full of stubble, word had reached Eli of his opponent's youth so Eli decided to put on a show for the crowd. “How bout a wager, young lad? Let’s add an element of shame to the defeated man’s already injured pride. Pick your poison, money? Humiliation? s****l favors? What are you looking for?” Eli spoke loud enough for the audience to hear every word. He intended to build pressure and diminish his opponents psyche. The crowd responded with laughter and anticipation. “Since you’re overflowing with confidence, how about an act of humiliation to teach you a lesson.” Max’s answer drew oohs and ahhs from the crowd. Max never lost, yet Eli had no knowledge of his opponents undefeated lifetime record. “When you lose, strip naked and take a stroll towards the nearest sorority and knock on the door to introduce yourself to all the young ladies, shake their hands and curtsy.” Max made the crowd laugh, and thought this might shake Eli in some sense, yet the enthusiastic guffaw that followed gave no sign of intimidation as Eli gladly accepted the youngsters challenge. “For you Max, I’d prefer to see you in a dress and wig with makeup for a month attending class. And tell your professors to refer to you as Mary for the rest of the school year.” Max grinned then accepted the terms as they shook hands with a rambunctious crowd of dorks and jocks to bear witness, as they were all eager for the defeated to be put to shame in public fashion. Eli put up a valiant fight, yet he was no match for the youngster. After tipping his king in defeat, he sighed and smirked, then dropped his pants and revealed why he had no fear of appearing nude to a sorority house filled with young ladies who may happen to be lonely on the first night of the new semester. The crowd was there to Boo and mock the loser as was tradition, yet young ladies in the crowd whistled in astonishment at what Eli had between his legs. “Win Win for me, Maximus.” Eli said with a magnetic yet boastful wink. He jogged a ways uphill to the second closest sorority to get better talent for the show, Alpha Epsilon Phi known for their gorgeous and slutty sisters. With the crowd following to witness a fearless fool with that python swinging back and forth between his legs, he knocked on the door. As the first girl answered, and the rest of the sisters heard the commotion which led them to observe the front door. Eli announced, “Hello there love” while he curtsied. Eli then informed the ladies of the house that his mate Max won the freshman chess tournament, and the wager was a birthday suit curtsy of an introduction to all the women of the house; astonishingly the girls gladly invited Eli and Max inside. To the surprise of everyone who came to watch this play out. Eli had a way with people that they desired for him to like them. Both Eli and Maximus were immediate legends on campus, and after the night that ensued in Alpha Epsilon Phi were best friends, not to mention eskimo brothers. Hans Schmitt may have been leading the way on cancer research as far as the public was concerned, but Hans had his soul crushed by the weight of profits that stacked to the moon from his chest. In a for profit healthcare system, ongoing treatment equates to more time and resources which raises the cost of medical attention. If there was a magical cure to cancer, such as a simple pill to take, this would f**k with the economy in more than a few ways. Tobacco sales would skyrocket knowing that cancer was the new gonorrhea, and the demand for the cure would therefore increase. Overpopulation would ensue, followed shortly by a worldwide water shortage from overpopulation. Those are just a few of the monkey wrenches that would be thrown into the engine of human evolution. The execution of how to pursue the logistics of distribution after the cure was discovered was not something that came up often, if ever, in medical circles. Probably because cancer is everything but simple, so the solution would have to be complex, having to cover the extensive reach of the disease. One of the first obstacles to overcome would be to stop metastasis, or the spread of cancer within the body. Cancer cells detach from the tumor's extracellular matrix and attach elsewhere in the body, which makes targeting cancer the hardest part of treatment. For a cancer cell to break free, it must defeat and or trick many immune system cells that typically cause necrosis; a type of cell death. Yet somehow these cancer cells migrate to new areas that cause more tumors to rise and multiply. Many enzymes take these cancer cells to task, such as RIPK1 which causes mitophagy, or degradation of the cancer cells mitochondria. However oxidative stress on cancer cells is just not enough, plus even if the cure were a five minute procedure, Hans would force his team to adjust and prolong treatment to exponentially increase profits. This would ensure that money for research on other cancers continued to flow into his establishment. Depending on who was funding experimental treatments would determine how efficient Hans would be with his cost evaluation, taxpayer dollars needed financial statements to show how the money was spent. But when private entities donated billions, Advil became a five thousand dollar pill, Intravenous bags of saline ran up to fifty thousand dollars, and successful treatment without remission cost your first born. Nobody questioned the price they paid for cancer treatment because only those with health insurance and copious amounts of cash could pursue treatment with Hans . Optimism oncology would buy in bulk, paying pennies for drugs and supplies while charging millions for distribution and treatment. Health costs.